


How To Save A Life

by midnightruse



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Cuban Lance (Voltron), Disabled Character, Fluff, Garrison - Freeform, Gay Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Keith's Past, Korean Keith (Voltron), M/M, Mild Language, Minor Character Death, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Paralyzed Keith, Sentient Voltron Lions, Universe Alteration, Violence, Yep I went there, but also like, klance, mostly canon with some changes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-09
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-02-12 11:31:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12958269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightruse/pseuds/midnightruse
Summary: Flying is the only solution after an accident leaves Keith orphaned and paralyzed at a young age. When he's piloting a ship, it doesn't matter that he can't use his legs—all he needs is his mind and his reflexes.Then Lance gets Keith stuck in a sentient, robotic lion on the other side of a wormhole. Typical.Keith thinks his future is over; he's in space but surrounded by a war that's been raging on for over 10,000 years.But then, Keith is accepted as the pilot of the Red Lion and everything changes. With Red's connection, he can walk again.





	1. The Accident

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone can thank my Sharpshooter for this hell you are about to enter. Enjoy.

The soft voices of his parents slowly woke Keith up from where he was asleep in the backseat.

“Keith, honey, time to wake up. We’re almost there.”

“Ailee, let him sleep until we get to the hotel. We are still probably half an hour out.”

Keith faintly heard his mother tapping on her phone with a frustrated groan.

“We still don’t have service. Are you sure we aren’t lost, Jung? It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Now when have I ever been wrong?” Jung laughed.

Keith sat up and rubbed his eyes. “You get us lost all the time, _Appa_.” Ailee laughed and turned around to look at her son. She patted his leg with a smile.

“Good to know you are on my side, _Adul._ ” Keith laughed. He loved it when his _Eomma_ called him that.  

“When will we be there? We’ve been in the car forever!”

“Well, your father is about as good at directions as you are at cleaning your room, so it might be a little longer.”

“Alright, that’s enough making fun of me,” Jung joked. He looked around at the surrounding trees and rolling hills, glancing back at the road every few seconds. “We should be getting clo—”

“LOOK OUT!” Ailee screamed.

Jung swerved to avoid hitting the deer that had jumped in front of their car, but the car spun out of control. Their yells were not enough to stop the car from heading straight for the tree.

Keith squeezed his eyes shut. He was scared.

Closing his eyes didn’t help.

The car hit the tree. Keith’s seatbelt was the only thing that kept him in the car. His head snapped forward painfully, then his body slammed into the side of the door as the car flipped.

Keith’s head slammed against the glass of the window, knocking him unconscious.

When he came to, he was pinned to his seat by the imploded car door. The car was upright, but everything was hazy and his eyes wouldn’t focus, but he could tell there was glass all over from the breeze coming in through the broken window. He thought he could smell gas, and everything was quiet.

Everything was too quiet.

Keith cried out as he tried to move. He needed to get up, he had to get to his parents.

“ _Eomma? Appa?”_

Keith was met only with the ragged sounds of his own breaths. He needed to get out, he had to help them.

Looking down to figure out how to free himself, Keith swallowed down a wave of nausea. His legs were completely crushed by the warped metal of the door. His arms were free but it hurt to breathe and his head hurt and his legs—his heart started beating even faster.

He couldn’t feel his legs.

“ _Appa!”_

He couldn’t feel his legs.

“ _Eomma!”_

He couldn’t feel his legs.

 

He must have blacked out again because when he opened his eyes he could hear people far away yelling. They were too loud, it hurt his head. Everything hurt his head. Everything hurt. Except for his legs. He couldn’t feel those.

He really wanted his parents to wake up, they’d make him feel better. When would they wake up?

A woman’s voice got louder as she got closer to the car. Keith wasn’t supposed to talk to strangers, but he needed someone to help him wake his parents up, so he figured it would be okay.

Keith moved his head as much as he could so he could see the woman coming near him. She looked nice but also a little scared. Why was she scared?

“Oh, _dios mio_ , Robert go call 911! _Por favor!_ ” She ran to Keith’s door and covered her mouth with her hands. “Sweetheart, oh, just hang in there, okay? We’re going to get you out of there.” A man’s voice yelled something in Spanish and she yelled something back, but Keith didn’t understand it.

Keith quietly watched as the woman took off her sweater and laid it over the broken window so she could reach into the car without scraping herself. Keith watched with fearful eyes. He didn’t know this lady and he just wanted to go home. Why wouldn’t _Eomma_ and _Appa_ talk to this lady? Why was she talking to him?

“ _Niño,_ can you understand me? What is your name?”

Keith was silent for a moment before stammering out his name. It hurt to talk.

“K-Keith.”

The woman smiled sadly. “Okay, Keith, are you hurt? Can you move?”

Keith shook his head, wincing at the movement.

“Don’t move, now, just stay still. My name’s María and I’m going to help you, okay?”

Keith felt tears forming in his eyes. Everything hurt and he was scared. “Can you help _Eomma_ and _Appa?_ They won’t wake up. I want my _Eomma_ and _Appa,_ please wake them up.”

María’s lips formed a tight smile. She moved to the seat in front of Keith, where Ailee was sitting. Keith couldn’t see María around the broken pieces of the car. Everything was really quiet again. Keith looked down at the metal on his legs, mesmerized as the sunlight danced on the shattered fragments of glass in his lap.

Keith lost track of how long it was, but after a while, María was back at his window. It looked like she had been crying, but Keith wasn’t really sure. She reached in and gently stroked Keith’s hair, shaking a few pieces of glass out of it. “Everything is going to be okay, _niño._ My husband is getting help. Can I talk with you while we wait?”

“What about _Appa_ and _Eomma?_ Did you try to wake them up?”

María bit her lip and took a shaky breath before forcing a comforting smile back on her face. “The nice doctors are coming to help you all, how’s that sound? How old are you, Keith?”

Keith didn’t like that his parents were still asleep, but he liked María, so he figured he could talk with her for a little while. “I’m six!”

“Six,” María smiled again. “I have a son your age. I bet you two would be friends, Keith.”

“Really? I’d like that,” Keith said. “I don’t have a lot of friends, but that’s okay ‘cuz I have _Eomma_ and _Appa!”_

María opened her mouth to respond but stopped short when she heard faint sirens. She brushed her fingers through Keith’s tousled hair before pulling her arm back out of the car. “I’m going to go get them, okay, Keith? I’ll be right back.”

She was running up the hill before Keith could say anything else. The sirens started to get louder, but the silence in the care seemed louder than ever.

Keith watched outside as several emergency vehicles pulled up to the edge of the hill. Men and women made their way down toward Keith, shattering any resemblance of the quiet there moments before. A firefighter reached Keith first, and Keith watched other people rush to the front of the car.

“We have a kid back here!” The firefighter smiled at Keith, but it didn’t do much to shrink his fear. Keith didn’t like loud noises or being around a lot of people. “Hey, son, we’re here to help you, but I’m gonna need you to be brave for me, okay? Can you do that for me?”

“Y-yeah,” Keith mumbled. Firefighters were cool—his _Eomma_ read him a story about firefighters once.

The next few minutes were a blur of noises and people and movement and confusion.

The people were talking to each other loudly outside the car with scary equipment. “Alright, let’s get this off the kid. We need to be quick, he’s lost a lot of blood and we don’t want to lose another one.”

Suddenly, the metal doorframe was being pulled off of Keith’s legs. He still couldn’t feel them, but the rest of his body screamed in pain at the movement.

Keith started crying. He wanted to go home, he didn’t want to be here anymore. He just wanted to go to sleep between his _Eomma_ and _Appa_ and forget they ever hit that stupid tree.

One of the paramedics started trying to console Keith, but then he saw something he knew would be burned into his mind for the rest of his life.

With the metal finally out of the way, Keith could see in the front of the car clearly. He almost stopped crying, he could see his parents, he could wake them u—

The bloodied, broken bodies of his parents were like a shot to his gut. Keith screamed and started hyperventilating, his breaths coming too fast and sending waves of pain through his chest but he couldn’t stop.

“Get a stretcher over here! We need to get him out!”

Someone cut Keith’s seatbelt so they could pull him out, but it was not quick enough. Not before Keith memorized every detail, every scratch and cut and broken-ness in the front seat.

“ _APPA! EOMMA!_ WAKE UP _!”_

“Help me pull him out, try not to move him too much.”

“WAKE UP! PLEASE WAKE UP!”

“On three.”

“WHY AREN’T YOU WAKING UP?”

“One.”

“PLEASE OPEN YOUR EYES!”

“Two.”

“DON’T LEAVE ME!”

“Three.”

“ _EOMMA, APPA,_ NO, COME BACK!”

The paramedics lifted Keith’s broken body from the car.

He was unconscious before he made it onto the stretcher.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Keith (unfortunately) meets Lance, the cocky cargo pilot at the Garrison that everyone's always talking about.


	2. The Garrison

“Kogane, get your ass out here right now!”

Keith groaned and rolled his eyes. Of course Iverson would catch him running simulations after lights-out.

Keith pulled the helmet off his head and blinked as the real world came back into view. He was surrounded by high-tech wires and cables, all projecting the image of a flight sim into the helmet. He stared blankly at the wall in front of him, trying to recreate the images he’d been watching only seconds before. He’d been so close to finishing the mission.

“Now, Kogane!” Iverson yelled.

Keith muttered under his breath and stretched his hands—they’d gotten cramped from gripping the controls for so long. With a calming breath, he rested his fingers around the cold metal spools on his wheelchair. He turned himself around and slowly made his way down the ramp. He was not in the mood for a lecture, but that never stopped Iverson from dishing one out at any given opportunity.

“Can I help you, Sir?” Keith looked up at the bulky man as he rolled to a stop. Iverson looked _pissed_.

 * 

Keith pulled his headphones over his ears before leaving his room. He was not in the mood for conversation. Not that he ever really was, and the combination of his glare and wheelchair was generally a good deterrent, but today he was really, _really_ not in the mood. After his long lecture from Iverson, he hadn’t gotten back to his room until it was far too late for him to get any sleep before classes.

Tightening the straps on his fingerless gloves, Keith tapped the button on his wrist communicator to open his door. Keith made his way down the hall toward his first class of the day — flight theory. He rolled his eyes at the thought.

Keith hated new classes. He was already the top pilot in his class, and better than at least two classes above him, so these lectures about hypothetical situations were pointless. Plus, each new term meant new classmates. New classmates meant more whispering, new pitying looks, the occasional bully before Keith scared them shitless, and more obstacles to getting where he wanted to be. He knew how to pilot, so why the Garrison wouldn’t just let him out to fly, Keith didn’t know.

Turning his new playlist on full blast, Keith went through the open door to the new classroom. Keeping his eyes forward, he rolled over to the open spot at the table closest to the window. Might as well have something interesting to look at while he was bored out of his mind.

Keith could _feel_ their stares, but he’d gotten used to it long ago.

He pulled himself up to the table and tossed his notebook and pen onto it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone sit next to him, but he just turned to look out the window before their instructor arrived. Unfortunately, a short, stumpy man in an officer’s uniform strode into the room immediately, signaling the beginning of the class. Keith pulled down his headphones, leaving them around his neck but silencing the music with a tap to the side. He had no intentions of paying attention, but he also would rather not be yelled at again so early in the morning.

*

Keith looked at the time and groaned internally. This class was taking even longer than he thought it would. He looked down at the sketches he’d inked out on his notepad. A ship and a moon — Takashi’s ship and Kerberos. It hadn’t been long since Shiro had left on that mission, but Keith already could feel the pain of missing him. He hadn’t been this far away from his adoptive brother in a long time. Not that Keith was dependent on him or anything, no, he’d learned to manage on his own long ago. It was more that he missed having someone to talk to, someone who saw through his blank face and full sketchbooks, someone who could see beyond Keith’s wheelchair.

Keith snapped out of his thoughts when the instructor snapped his book shut and dismissed the cadets. Before Keith could put his headphones back on, the kid sitting beside him all but jumped in front of Keith to get his attention.

“Hey there Mister Too-Cool-For-School,” Keith looked up with a dubious glare. He was taken by surprise at the bright and animated blue eyes staring back at him. The boy winked and finger-gunned. Keith suppressed the urge to groan. “The name’s Lance.”

Keith looked at the guy, taking in his tan skin, long legs, silky, brown hair, pretty eyes—wait, wait nope not going there, annoying boy, nothing more.

“Do you have a name, Pretty Boy?” Keith hoped his bangs hid the blush that crept along his pale cheeks. _God damn, this boy._

“Keith.”

“Keith, huh? Well, Keith, I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other. Hasta la later!” Lance made a mock-salute and walked out of the room, leaving Keith grumbling as he tucked his stuff into his bag.

Lance…who did this kid think he was?

*

Any Gay Thoughts™ regarding a certain cargo pilot were quickly eliminated as the weeks drug on. Keith couldn’t stand him. He was cocky and loud and arrogant and _infuriating._

Today, Keith was at the end of his patience. He’d been unable to sleep at all the night before, so he’d snuck into a training room to work out and do some hand-to-hand combat on one of the dummies. Now he was exhausted and wanted nothing more than this day to end.

“And then, Hunk threw up all over the engine room! The observing officer was so ticked, but man, I couldn’t stop laughing,” Lance was animatedly whispering to Keith while the instructor went on and on about flight trajectories and how to calculate altitude impact on various crafts. Keith was adamantly trying to ignore Lance. Keith was saved from learning the details of Lance’s cleaning punishment when Iverson walked into the room, interrupting the instructor and silencing the whispering around the room.

Iverson never interacted with the young pilots unless absolutely necessary. Something was wrong.

“Cadets. As I am sure you are all aware, the Garrison launched a research mission to Kerberos several weeks ago. The crew was instructed to keep contact with us, but they have failed to send a transmission in three weeks.”

Keith’s heart dropped.

“After further investigation, it has been determined that all three crewmembers are, in fact, missing. Due to pilot error, Matthew and Samuel Holt, as well as Takashi Shirogane, are presumed to be dead.”

Keith couldn’t breathe.

This couldn’t be happening.

“No.”

Iverson whipped his head around to look at Keith with a glare. “What was that, cadet?”

Keith hadn’t realized he’d spoken aloud, but he was too confused and in shock to process anything happening around him. “They aren’t dead.”

Iverson fumed. “Boy, you’d best mind your tone with me.”

“You’re wrong, though!” Keith didn’t feel like he was getting enough air. Nothing felt real.

“Do we have a problem, Kogane?”

“They aren’t dead!” Keith yelled back, finally looking up at Iverson. Keith’s face had lost what little color it had. “Takashi would never mess up, he’s the best pilot at the Garrison!”

Iverson glared, but Keith wasn’t fazed, which only infuriated the commander more. “We will not be continuing this conversation, cadet. The pilot and crew are dead. There will be no further discussion on the matter.” Iverson turned to leave.

“I’m not finished! Shiro is not dead, you asshole! You’re wrong!”

“Cadet! Report to my office!” Iverson shouted and stepped toward the door. A textbook hitting his head stopped him from walking any farther.

The entire class’ eyes were wide as they watched the exchange. Keith was breathing heavily and he picked up his notebook with a shaking hand, ready to throw it as well. Iverson’s fury was terrifying, but nothing compared to the gut-wrenching emptiness Keith felt all over. Shiro wasn’t dead. Shiro promised he’d be back. He was supposed to be back in three weeks. This wasn’t real.

Keith snapped.

“YOU FUCKING BASTARD HE’S NOT DEAD YOU HEAR ME? TAKASHI IS COMING BACK. YOU’RE A FUCKING LIAR. TAKASHI DID NOT MESS UP HE WILL BE BACK IN THREE WEEKS LIKE HE PROMISED.”

“Cadet!” Iverson marched toward Keith and stood over him, making sure he was close to eye-level but still above Keith. “You are dismissed until further notice. You will remain in your quarters until you are instructed to report for disciplinary a—”

Keith felt like he was going to throw up or pass out or both, he didn’t know. He set down his notebook—no point in keeping it anymore.

“Suck my dick, Iverson.” Before the man could yell a response, Keith’s fist flew up to strike Iverson’s jaw.

Keith doesn’t really remember what happened after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy the update!
> 
>  
> 
> **As far as future updates go, I cannot promise any consistency (RIP to my other fics, so sorry fam), but I can promise I will NEVER abandon this or any other work. It might take a while, but eventually, updates will come around. Thank you for being patient. 
> 
> Next chapter: The Paladins meet the Lions. Keith is in for a surprise.


	3. The Red Paladin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's unedited, but here it is. 
> 
> A quick disclaimer, though, before we get into it. I am not physically disabled and do not have acquaintances who are. I have done some research, but I know this is not by any means perfect. It is not my intention to depict anyone who is in a wheelchair in any particular light, and if you have feedback or concerns regarding my terms or descriptions, please let me know. 
> 
> Also, this strays from the canon way things happen in VLD. Just letting y'all know. 
> 
> Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

The wind ripped through Keith’s long hair as his speeder raced across the barren desert. He turned sharply and received another chorus of yelps from behind him. He rolled his eyes. Lance sounded like a damn five-year-old.

He could feel Shiro’s weight pressed against his back, a reassuring presence giving Keith a sense of completion he’d been missing ever since Shiro had left for the Kerberos mission. Hunk had shifted him closer to the front once they’d clearly outrun the Garrison sentries and Keith was happy for that. With Shiro safe, well, safer, Keith felt a weight fall right off his shoulders and scatter in the clouds of dust billowing up behind his bike.

Another turn and another scream from Lance. Keith laughed again.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, embracing the weightlessness that flying brought him. When he was flying, nothing mattered. It was just him – his soul, his speeder, and nothing else. Nothing mattered when he was flying. He wasn’t the poor orphan, bound to a wheelchair and booted from the only shot he had at a real future. None of that mattered. The world could be falling apart – it tended to do that a lot for Keith – but so long as he was flying, he could be anything or absolutely nothing at all.

Another yell from Lance broke Keith out of his thoughts. He turned to yell at Lance to be quiet, but before he could, he realized why Lance was yelling.

Shiro was waking up.

*

“What are these?” Shiro asked.

“These are the lion carvings I was telling you about,” Keith led the group into the cave. He could feel the moist dirt from the bottom of the cave building up on his gloves as he rolled his chair into the cave. “They’re everywhere around here.” It had been a pain in the ass to get all the way out to the caves without his bike, but Shiro had given him a disapproving look when he suggested he go ahead of the group. In the end, Keith had to pull out the hover-chair he’d built when he’d first found himself unceremoniously dumped off Garrison grounds and needed to travel all the way out to the shack that would become his new home.

Keith preferred his unmodified, basic wheelchair. Sure, he could have created something high-tech that required little-to-no effort to maneuver, but the thought of confining himself to a chair willingly…it wasn’t an option. He’d spent all his time building his bike and perfecting the various parts and pieces to make it fast and reliable. If he could, he’d spend every moment on his bike – he didn’t need legs to fly. Keith refused to make a new wheelchair. He hated the damn thing and he refused to let his disability take up any more of his time than it already did.

So, Keith folded his wheelchair into its smallest size, the only modification he’d ever made on it, and tucked away in his hover-chair. He’d taken that across the desert with the others in search of the caves, but as soon as they’d reached the entrance, Keith switched back to his normal chair. Hunk had stepped forward to help Keith, but Shiro stopped Hunk before he could open his mouth. Shiro knew how Keith was – he didn’t accept help from anybody, even if he really needed it; something Keith knew would come back to hurt him one day, but today was not that day and he would do things himself.

Keith watched as Lance walked closer to the carvings. His bright blue eyes lit up as he ran his hand across the carvings, brushing away some of the dust – not that Keith had noticed Lance’s eye color or anything, nope, nothing like that. Speaking of blue…

Every carving in the cave suddenly lit up, illuminating the group’s faces with eerie, blue light.

“They’ve never done that before,” Keith trailed off as he realized something else the blue light revealed.

Standing before him was an enormous, robotic, blue lion. And it was looking right at them.

*

The next day passed in a blur. They were…Paladins of Voltron? Keith shook his head, trying to sort everything out in his head. Nothing really made sense, but it really didn’t seem like they had a choice. If Lance could pilot a giant lion robot thing, then it couldn’t be all that hard, right? Plus, he’d be _flying_ it, and flying meant freedom, be it on Earth or galaxies away.

He pulled his hands toward him, bringing his wheelchair to a stop. In front of him sat the Red Lion, and even from the outside, Keith could feel its energy buzzing in his mind. An angry growl rumbled in his head, and Keith winced. Apparently, the lion didn’t like being referred to as “it;” _she_ was making her fiery personality very clear to Keith from the get-go.

“So, the Red Lion, huh?” Keith spoke aloud, unsure how to establish this “bond” Allura had told them all about. He’d been dropped off at a Galran base while the others defended it from the outside in the three lions they’d gotten so far. Shiro wouldn’t be able to wake up the Black Lion until Keith had Red with him to join Blue, Green, and Yellow.

“I, um, I don’t know how to really do this, but I guess I’m your paladin?” Keith stared up at Red, waiting for a response, but nothing happened. The others had an easy time becoming Paladins, so why was Red not answering him? Hell, even Lance had figured it out!

Keith could feel the anger and frustration growing within himself. He took a deep breath and stared up at the silent lion. “Come on, I know you can hear me. We have to get out of here and help the others fight off the Galra.” Keith whipped his head around when a loud blast hit the bay door, the only thing keeping the fight from him. The fact that he could hear the fighting meant they were losing ground…they needed his help.

“Hey, listen to me!” Keith felt himself getting even angrier as the seconds ticked on. He swore the lion’s yellow eyes were laughing at him. “We have to help them, you hear me?” Still no response. He could hear the roars of the three lions on the other side of the door.

“Dammit, I am your Paladin! You have to let me in right now!” If he didn’t get Red to accept him as her Paladin, the others were going to die. Keith dropped his head in his hands, closing his eyes in frustration.

What…what if Allura was wrong? What if he wasn’t supposed to be the Red Paladin? He was a delinquent ex-fighter pilot that couldn’t even walk on his own – what use was he to a 10,000-year-old magical lion? Voltron didn’t need him, they needed a real pilot, a real fighter, a better person. He wasn’t good enough to be a Paladin of Voltron. He was never good enough. Not for the Garrison, not for his foster families, not for his parents…

No.

Stop.

He couldn’t think that way, not anymore. He was done feeling useless. He’d saved Shiro, he’d led them all to the first lion. He’d survived the impossible time and time again. He was top of his class, while he was still a cadet anyway, and he couldn’t move his legs. He was Keith Kagone. He was a Paladin of Voltron. He was the Red Paladin.

Keith opened his eyes, the violet flames all but glowing in the faint light of the room.

**_Please. Let me in._ **

Red’s eyes lit up as she threw her head back with a roar. Keith couldn’t help the grin on his face. The lion lowered her head and opened her jaw, revealing a ramp leading inside. Keith rolled forward, taking in the feeling of Red’s raw power flowing through his mind. She approved of him.

Just as he was about to start up the ramp, Keith’s felt the breath knocked out of him. He doubled over in his chair, pulling at the collar of his jacket as if it would replenish the air suddenly absent from his lungs.

He could feel Red. She was searching for something within him, uncovering and revealing Keith’s past, his fears, his strengths and weaknesses, all the dirty, ugly parts of him that he kept buried deep inside, as well as the beautiful memories he held onto with all he had.

**_Welcome home, my cub._ **

Keith could breathe again, but now there was another voice in his head. It was comforting, though, as if Red was always supposed to be there. He looked up at her, an awe-struck smile plastered on his face.

Keith reached down to the wheels of his chair, meaning to make his way up the ramp.

**_No, not like that. Stand, little one._ **

Keith looked at Red with confusion. Surely, she understood he couldn’t walk, right?

**_You heard me._** Keith swore Red snorted and rolled her eyes. **_Stand._**

It was frustrating, being told and chastised to do something he could not. Keith hit his thigh with his fist, trying to dispel the anger welling up inside. He didn’t expect the sting of the hit, and he winced.

Wait.

His leg hurt.

His leg…he could feel his legs.

He could feel his legs.

Keith felt his eyes stinging, but he hardly cared. He looked up at Red, relishing the comforting and reassuring feelings she draped over him like a blanket.

With shaking hands, Keith pushed the footplates of his wheelchair aside, lowering his feet to the ground. He gripped the armrests tightly and tucked his bottom lip between his teeth in concentration. Slowly, Keith pushed himself upright, up on to his feet, for the first time since he was six years old.

Keith looked at Red, his cheeks growing wet as tears streaked down his face. He smiled and looked forward with a new determination and drive. Keith took one step forward, then another, and another. Each step was less shaky than the last. Each step was one more step away from his wheelchair and the invisible weight that had been crushing him all these years. He made it up the metal ramp, and Keith found himself running to the cockpit, being shown the way through Red. She laughed at Keith’s childish joy, a mirror of the laughter pouring from Keith’s mouth. He didn’t know the last time he’d felt this happy.

He didn’t stop running until he reached the cockpit.

His grin stayed on his face as he gripped the controls, piloting Red straight through the bay doors and into the battle – a fight that was quickly won once he joined the fray.

He didn’t stop smiling, not even when they had all made it back to the castle. Keith could hear everyone outside his lion, excited he had connected with Red and that they had won their first big battle with the enemy. Keith got out of his pilot’s chair and made his way down the corridor to the ramp leading out, his heart pounding with each and every step.

Everyone outside grew silent, their eyes wide with shock while they watched Keith walk out of his lion. Keith felt himself tearing up again, but he really couldn’t even find it in himself to be ashamed. He was too happy.

“Turns out, being a Paladin has a few more perks than we knew about,” Keith laughed as Shiro stepped forward to embrace him. It was not long before Pidge, Hunk and Lance joined in while Allura and Coran stood to the side, smiling at their Paladins.

“I think this calls for a celebration!” Lance yelled, turning to Hunk. “Hunk, my man, please tell me you can get this food goo to turn into something a little more edible.”

“Leave it to me,” Hunk laughed.

“Oh yeah! Come on, Keith, it’s time you learned how to let loose with some good food and even better company,” Lance threw an arm around Keith’s shoulders. Keith turned his head away to hide his probably blushing face from Lance, but he didn’t pull away from the contact.

The group walked out of Red’s hangar, but before the doors closed, Keith turned back to look at Red with another smile. He didn’t have to say anything, Red was a part of him now, she knew how he felt.

**_Together, anything is possible. I will always be with you, little one._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all are having a fantastic holiday season! 
> 
> Please let me know what you think of the new chapter and the story in general! The idea came from my best friend, who is brilliant and amazing and the Best™ person ever, so I am doing my best to create something she loves. Feedback is always welcome! You can also find me on [tumblr](http://midnightruse.tumblr.com/)!


	4. The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long time no update, my dudes. I hope this ending was worth the wait. Yell at me on [tumblr](http://midnightruse.tumblr.com/).

“Keith?!” Lance’s voice was filled with concern over the comms. Keith swore as he dodged a blast, making sure this one didn’t hit Red’s side like the last one had.

“I’m fine.”

“That didn’t _look_ fine,” Pidge chirped in.

Keith rolled his eyes, gripping his controls a little tighter. “I didn’t see the blast coming; it won’t happen again.” Irritated, Keith flipped off the comms. A flashing screen caught his attention.

“What’s going on, are you sure everything is fine?” Lance’s questioning face appeared as the Blue Paladin opened a private channel with Keith.

Keith sighed, keeping one eye on the fight around him and another on the comforting Cuban boy. “I’ve just got a bad feeling for some reason, it’s probably nothing, I just need to focus more.”

Lance’s brow furrowed as he took in Keith’s words. “Be careful, okay? You have good instincts – trust them.” Lance’s hand pressed up against the video screen, and Keith reached out to do the same. It was a habit they’d picked up, their way of saying they were never alone, even in the vast emptiness of space or the midst of battle.

“Shit!” Lance jerked back, pulling both hands back onto the controls. “I gotta go, babe. Stay safe out there.”

Keith smiled, letting his fingers linger on the screen over Lance’s face for a moment, captivated by the concentration and focus in Lance’s eyes at the task at hand. “Love you.” Keith switched the channel off and took a deep breath. “Let’s go Red.” _Let’s finish this before something bad happens…_

 

* * *

 

Flashing lights filled the cockpit, as if the jarring noises or stabbing pain in his side was not enough of a sign something was wrong.

“Come on, Red, just a little longer.” Keith yelled in frustration as his lion’s movements lagged, even as he pleaded and pulled on the controls. He was on the ground floor of the Galran prison base, he just had to get past these sentries and shut down the main control panel. The rest of the team was waiting back at the castle for his signal. _Just a little more, Red._

Their mission was simple … at least, simpler than some of the riskier ones they’d been on lately. He’d volunteered to sneak in and shut down the panel since Pidge and Green were still recovering from being shot down a few days prior by a rogue ship. All Keith had to do was use his Lion’s speed to get through all the guards, and then manually input a code from Pidge to dismantle all the system-monitored protections the base had. After that, the rest of the team, who would be keeping tabs from the CastleShip, would wormhole to his location and retrieve the prisoners. It was less likely for real reinforcements to be called to protect the base if the rest of Voltron was off the radar, so Keith was flying solo until the base was a dead zone for Galra communication.

Keith swore again as he barely dodged a shot from a guard. Normally, he could have Red blast their way through, but in such close quarters with the prisoners onboard, it would be too much of a gamble if the ship could withstand the damages inflicted. Not to mention Red wasn’t responding as quickly as she should be, causing several systems to crash and malfunction, including the shields that normally protected Red from taking damage from low-level weapons like the one’s the guards wielded.

A blast of energy crashed into the Red Lion, almost throwing Keith out of his chair. Keith looked around, scanning for the source of the blast, but nothing was in sight, save for the few sentries firing their weapons at him. Nothing seemed to be different, but the blast gave Keith a bad feeling on top of the bad feeling he’d been carrying around since they’d started out on this mission.

“Red, what was that?”

Keith reached for a switch, planning to activate a new weapon Pidge had installed that would deactivate the guards long enough for them to get through. He flipped it, bracing himself for the little bit of recoil he knew to expect, but nothing happened.

Keith swallowed down the fear budding in his stomach, telling himself it was nothing, everything was fine, and flipped the switch again. This time, he was thrown into darkness and silence. The alarms had turned off. Keith knew there was no way the problems had fixed themselves, which only meant one thing.

“Red??”

His lion didn’t respond.

Where he normally found a burning being prowling around his subconscious like a caged beast waiting to break free, he could barely sense a spark.

Keith felt his hands shaking as he reached up to his helmet, unsteady fingers feeling for the button that would hopefully turn his comms back on. He took a deep breath and pushed.

“Lance? Shiro? Anyone?”

The seconds of silence felt like a death sentence. But then —

“-eith, are you there?” Keith hadn’t been so happy to hear Shiro’s voice in a long time.

Keith couldn’t help the relieved, shaky breath that escaped his lips before he could say anything else. 

“Keith?! Are you okay?”

Keith smiled. Leave it to Lance to pick up on all that, just from that little sound and moment of hesitation.

“Better now that I know I can still talk to you guys.”

“Wait,” Shiro cut back in. “What do you mean? What’s going on?”

“Yeah, Keith, your signature just cut out. You’re completely off our radar.” Keith could hear Pidge typing at her control panel back on the ship, no doubt trying to reconnect to his Lion’s signal … or lack thereof.

“I’m really not sure what’s going on, but Red’s down. Something’s been weird this whole fight, but some sort of energy wave hit us and now she’s completely unresponsive.”

“When you say unresponsive, do you mean like you …” Hunk trailed off before finishing his thought, the thoughts everyone was thinking but refusing to say out loud.

The thoughts that plagued Keith’s dreams, the what-ifs of not having Red’s connection. He shook his head, as if that could clear the thoughts from his mind.

“Look, I am a sitting duck here, and I need backup. I don’t even know how long I can keep this channel open.”

“What do you mean?” Lance asked.

“It seems like this is all Red can do right now. I can barely feel her, and if she goes offline completely…” Keith trailed off, thoughts speeding through his mind faster than he could process them. Words and feelings and fears and ideas, all piling into his head one after another, stacking on top of each other and leaving no room for anything but one conclusion — the one concern screaming louder than everything else.

_Without Red, I can’t walk._

Keith could hear Lance saying something to everyone else, but he couldn’t make out the words.

_Without Red, I can’t walk._

The sentries were still shooting, and it seemed like there were more of them than before. He could feel the vibrations of the blasts as they hit his Lion.

_Without Red, I can’t walk._

 

“Keith?”

 

Lance’s voice, so small and gentle, broke through the fog in Keith’s mind, through the short, staggered breaths.

“Babe?”

“Lance?”

“Yeah, Keith, I’m here. It’s just me now.”

“Lance,” Keith swallowed the bile rising in his throat. “I’m scared.”  His voice was small.

Keith swore he could hear Lance fighting back the emotions he knew his words hit. He was Keith — the brash, fearless, reckless Red Paladin of Voltron. He was supposed to be brave. He wasn’t supposed to be scared.

Six months with his legs was all it took for the impending possibility of his returning paralysis to fill his lungs with lead. He looked down at his clenched fists, feeling his fingernails digging into the calloused skin of his palms.

“Keith, we’re going to get you out of there, okay?” When Keith didn’t respond, Lance continued talking, trying to distract his boyfriend from the fears only he was granted access to know and understand. Even Shiro didn’t understand the full extent of how much being able to walk again had brought life back to Keith. Keith only shared those feelings with Lance, late at night under blankets, looking out at the millions of foreign stars. Lance knew how much Keith actually doubted himself, how much he worried about becoming a liability, how often he’d rambled about a situation just like this one. The situation Lance always told him he would never face alone.

“Keith, listen to me. Pidge is finding the best way for us to get in. You just keep talking to me, okay?”

“But, Lance,”

“No, no ‘but’s, just trust me, okay? You trust me, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good. ‘Lura is going to wormhole us over there and we are going to get you and the prisoners all out of there in one piece any tick now. We just have to finish up some calculations before we can make the jump.”

“But if you guys come here before I shut down their systems, they might signal the fleet,” Keith stood and scanned the dark panel in front of him, trying to form a plan that didn’t involve using his Lion.

“Nah, we don’t really care about that anymore.” Keith could practically hear the smile in Lance’s voice. “We decided to take a page out of your book and ‘shoot first, as questions later’ if you get what I’m saying.”

Lance said something to the rest of the team, but Keith was too focused on the bright light streaking toward him. He didn’t have time to brace himself before a huge blast struck red head-on, sending a wave of electricity across the dark panels as Red toppled over and he was thrown across the room. He fell to the ground on his back, the wind knocked out of him as static filled his comms.

“—Kei—you—oka—we—coming—hold on—” Keith waited for more words, but the static turned to silence and then he was alone.

Keith gasped as the air slowly filled his lungs again. His ears were ringing from being thrown, but the loss in contact with Lance and the team hurt more than anything.

That is, until he tried to stand back up.

Keith closed his eyes and reminded himself to breathe.

He tried to feel Red, even just the smallest spark to let him know she was still with him.

Nothing.

He tried to move his legs.

Nothing.

He took a shaky breath, ignoring the burning behind his eyelids and the frustration quickly bubbling in his gut.

His inner musings were cut short as the sounds of the someone approaching echoed across the silent Lion. From where he was laying, Keith could make out the outline of the escape hatch on Red’s underbelly, which was easily accessible from her position on the ground. It sounded like the guards were approaching it, having noticed it may be a way into the Lion.

Keith looked up at the ceiling, steeling himself for the task at hand. He couldn’t just wait for someone to come to his rescue. He had to do this himself. He’d managed most of his life without his legs — what was another fight?

Bracing his palms on the ground, Keith slowly hoisted himself into a sitting position, using his upper body to move the rest of him. He leaned against the wall (ceiling?) and flexed his right hand near his thigh, summoning his bayard. His fingers gripped the cool surface.

He could do this.

Keith could hear the guards clearly now. They’d grabbed something to try to pry the hatch open, from the sounds of it. Keith knew it was only a matter of ticks before the got it open, and he couldn’t let them have free reign in _his_ Lion. He was the Red Paladin. He could do this.

The angry groan of metal announced the door giving way. Keith closed his eyes, taking a calming breath and trying to remember what Lance had taught him about his bayard. The weight, the feel, the balance, the grip and hand placement. Keith brought his left hand to the side of his bayard, breathing out through his mouth as the metal transformed beneath his fingers, like it had so many times before, but this time it wasn’t a sword Keith held in his hands.

Keith opened his eyes to see the sleek, red gun. He had no time to admire the fact he’d actually managed to change his bayard — the hatch was pulled open and a guard moved to step into the Red Lion, blaster poised as they, no doubt, looked through the scope to seek out any movement across the interior of the dark Lion.

Silently, Keith tucked the butt of his rifle tightly into the muscle of his shoulder, avoiding the bones like Lance had told him to. He breathed in through his nose, found his target in the scope, softly breathed out through his mouth, and fired.

The sentry went down before their foot even reached the ground. Keith felt a small smile creep onto his face. He wasn’t defenseless.

The other guards yelled and tried to storm into Red, but Keith fired one blast after another, taking each down as quickly as the one before. He bit his lip and hissed in pain as a shot from a sentry’s weapon struck him in the left side, but he kept shooting. He didn’t know if or when the team would get there. He had to do this on his own.

He didn’t know how long he sat there, unable to move any more than to lean to the left or right to avoid being grazed by another blast, shooting down one soldier after another. It seemed like an eternity before the doorway was empty, and metallic bodies laid smoking and unmoving all over the interior of Keith’s Lion.

He kept his bayard rifle aimed at the door, even as his arms began to shake and his head throbbed in time with his heart and the wound in his side, pumping out blood that was soaking through his armor onto his unmoving left leg and the floor below. His cheek burned where a piece of metal had struck him, drawing blood, but he paid it no mind. There could be more guards. They could have called for backup. They could be planning on attacking him again. He couldn’t let his focus waver, even for a moment.

It wasn’t until he heard the roaring of the other lions that he let himself lower the rifle, though he kept his finger resting over the trigger, just in case.

It wasn’t until a large blast shook the room (Blue took out the whole wall) and he could hear Lance yelling his name that Keith allowed himself to smile and let his head fall back against the wall.

“Keith!!?”

“In here!” Keith yelled back, coughing a little and wincing as his side protested.

Keith couldn’t help but laugh when he saw blue armor peek through the hole in his Lion, a gun matching his own in everything but color raised and ready to fire anything that moved. Keith watched the expression on Lance’s face turn from ready to fight to confused to relieved to awed as his eyes landed on Keith’s figure and the gun bayard in his lap. Keith grinned as the other Paladins’ figures appeared in the doorway with various words of confusion and mild concern, but his eyes were only on Lance as the Blue Paladin ran toward him, careful not to trip over any of the metal bodies strewn across the ground.

Keith let his bayard dematerialize as Lance dropped to his knees beside him, eyes full of concern and pride, searching Keith’s for answers while his hands brushed gently around the scratch on his face and brushed stray hair from his eyes.

“Are you okay?”

Keith smiled wider. “Looks like you’re not the only Sharpshooter on the team anymore.”

Lance’s face broke into a grin and he laughed, throwing himself toward Keith to embrace the Red Paladin. Keith tensed and barely contained the yell of pain trying to push past his lips as his weight shifted, putting strain on his wounded side.

“Are you hurt?!” Lance’s eyes frantically searched Keith’s body before landing on the blood-stained armor just below his ribs. “Shit, Keith!”

“Yeah, I’m not going to lie, that doesn’t feel too great at the moment.” Keith felt light-headed, but he wasn’t sure if it was from the blood loss, his relief at having Lance with him again, or from the fading of the adrenaline that flooded his veins while he fought.

Lance pulled back and gently held Keith’s face in his hands before pressing a careful kiss to his lips. When they pulled apart, Keith rested his forehead against Lance’s, finally feeling the full weight of the fight on his body and the exhaustion setting in quickly.

“Don’t fall asleep on me yet, Keith. We’ve got to get you out of here and into a pod.” Lance pulled back and turned to the other Paladins. It was times like these that his skills as a leader had a chance to shine through, and Shiro was always more than happy to step aside and let the other Paladins have a chance to take charge.

“Hunk, you and Pidge should go get the prisoners. You shouldn’t face anything else out there, I think Keith here shot down everything giving off a signal on this base. Shiro, you’ve got the biggest Lion, so you can take Red back to the Castle of Lions. Tell Allura what we are doing. I’ll take Keith back with me in Blue.” Everyone nodded and headed back outside.

It was becoming a bit of an effort to keep his eyes open, but Keith didn’t want to stop looking at Lance.

“I can’t believe you got your bayard to transform _and_ you took all of these guys out.” Lance smiled at Keith fondly. “I told you that you didn’t need your legs to be you.”  

Keith smiled and shook his head. “As much as I love you telling me how great I am, we should probably get out of here.” Keith took a shaky breath, preparing himself for the pain that was definitely going to come on full-force the moment Lance moved him.

“I’m sorry about this.” Lance wrapped an arm under Keith’s knees and the other under his arms.

Keith was glad the rest of the team had left and didn’t have to see him break down when Lance picked him up. Keith couldn’t stop the scream from climbing out his throat or the tears falling down his face or the whispers of “please” from slipping past his lips. Every one of Lance’s steps was agony as fire burned from the hole in his side and spread across the rest of his body. For once, he was grateful he couldn’t feel his legs, only because it meant less places for the pain to spread.

By the time they’d made it to the Blue Lion, Keith felt himself losing the battle of keeping his eyes open.

“L’nce.”

He felt Blue rumbling around them as Lance mentally asked her to head back to the CastleShip, _quickly_.

Keith dropped his head onto Lance’s chest, finally succumbing to the exhaustion and the pain.

“You can close your eyes now, Keith. You’re safe now. I’ve got you.”

 

* * *

 

 A rush of cold air and the feeling of weightlessness greeted Keith when his eyes opened next.

Weightlessness?

Make that falling. Falling backwards. _Shit._

Strong, warm arms curled around him, catching him and pulling him slowly to the ground and onto long legs well before he would have fallen the rest of the way. Ocean blue eyes looked down at him, a small smile dancing across lips that Keith desperately wanted to kiss.

“Hi.”

Keith reached up and grabbed a fistful of Lance’s jacket, effectively pulling him down and crushing his lips against his own.

Keith pulled back and released Lance, a smile on his face matching the one on Lance’s.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Lance laughed, staring down at the boy in his lap. His eyes turned serious after a moment though when Keith closed his eyes, eyebrows tightly scrunched together. “Keith, are you okay?”

Keith nodded but took a moment to answer. His memories had slammed back into his head, but one thing was still missing.

“Is Red okay?” Keith looked up at Lance, who hesitated before answering. “What’s wrong with her?”

“We got you both back, and while you were in the pod everyone’s been working to get Red back up and running. Pidge discovered the Galra were testing out a new form of weaponry to completely disable and immobilize our Lions for an undetermined amount of time — if all of Voltron had gone to that base in the beginning, we would have been rendered useless. Since it was just you and Red, Pidge and Hunk can probably create a sort of anti-virus so it doesn’t happen again, but it’s…it’s taking time and Red still hasn’t responded to any of us or to our Lions since we brought her back to the Castle.”

Keith was quiet for a moment. His eyes dropped to his legs. He felt nothing. “So that’s why I fell backwards, you guys knew I probably couldn’t catch myself at all.”

Keith looked at Lance, who looked crushed. “We hoped your bond with Red would have fixed itself while you were in the pod but we weren’t sure, and with her still not responding to any of us we —”

“Lance,” Keith cut him off, bringing a hand to Lance’s cheek and caressing it gently. “It’s alright. I got through this before and I can get through it again.” The two smiled at each other. “Besides, now I’ve got you by my side. Nothing scares me anymore.” Keith closed his eyes in contentment when Lance’s fingers ran through his hair, detangling the knots that had worked their way into the black tresses.

“Do you want to see her?”

Keith’s eyes lit up, which was answer enough for Lance. Despite Keith’s quiet protest (he would never admit it, but he was still exhausted), Lance helped him into the hover chair Coran had set out for him.

“Just remember, she hasn’t connected with the other Lions, so she might need more time, so don’t get your hopes up if she doesn’t wake up or —” Lance’s mutterings were cut off with a yell when Keith whipped the chair around and pulled Lance into his lap.

“If I have to ride on this thing, I might as well make you ride with me.”

Lance readjusted his position as they both laughed and headed out the door and down the hall to the hangars.

Keith’s quiet voice broke the silence that followed. “And don’t worry, I know it’ll take time. I just want to see her after everything.”

Lance smiled and leaned back, getting closer to his boyfriend.

When they finally reached the hangar, Lance hopped off the hover chair, letting Keith head in first.

Save for the quiet whirrings of the chair, the hangar was silent. The dim lights shone on the Red Lion, a little less brightly over her new scratches from their last fight, but brilliantly all the same. Keith smiled just seeing her, but it was weird, not feeling her burning within himself.

Red’s giant maw rested on the ground, and Keith didn’t stop until he was pressed up against her. He reached out a hand and rested it on his Lion, dropping his head and closing his eyes. _Searching for Red_.

He didn’t know how long he sat like that, but eventually Lance’s hand on his shoulder told him it was time to head back. As much as he wanted to fight it and stay a little longer, he was so tired he didn’t have the energy to argue, plus, cuddling up next to Lance in his bed sounded _really_ nice right then.

Keith sighed and turned the chair around, following Lance toward the door.

Before he made it very far, he had a strange idea. Keith stopped and turned around to look back at Red, a smirk on his lips.

 “Keith?” Lance questioned, unsure what Keith was still doing.

_I know you’re in there. Don’t take too long or I might accidentally throw myself out of an airlock or something else reckless._

“I’m coming,” Keith turned back around and met Lance’s confused gaze.

Before he could move the hoverchair any further, a gust of _something_ blew through the room, rustling his hair and tugging at his clothes. Keith grinned as a fire reignited in his chest and a deafening roar shook the castle walls around them.

**_You’d be lost without me, my reckless cub._ **

Keith turned his head and found himself face to face with his Lion crouching behind him. Her yellow eyes gleamed, and she roared again, though this time it was much quieter and was for Keith’s ears only.

**_I am proud to call you my Paladin. Now, get off that contraption and close the Blue cub’s mouth before his jaw unhinges._ **

Keith felt Red’s power wash over him as he looked back at Lance, who was, in fact, starting with his mouth wide open. Keith felt Red roll her eyes, but he felt her love for Lance right beside his own. With a smile, Keith pushed himself up from the chair and took a shaky step forward. Before he could take another, Lance ran toward him and swept him into a hug, quite literally sweeping Keith off his feet. Keith laughed and kissed Lance when the boy finally let him stand again. Instead of letting go, Keith pulled him close, not for a kiss but for a tight embrace.

He held Lance tightly and Lance did the same. They held each other and breathed out their fears from the last mission, from every time they had been faced with a potential goodbye and all the moments that were sure to come in the future. It was never easy, but so long as they had each other, they could make it through it all. They would see the other side of this war.

**_I am always with you. Together, we can do anything._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I FINALLY came back and finished this fic and WOW it was fun to write. I am so sorry for abandoning this for so long, but I really hope this final chapter made it worth it. Thank you for sticking in there. 
> 
> (This is so unbetaed? unbeta-d? un-beta-ed??? it hurts me, but it's after midnight and I really wanted to just get it posted before another few months passed so please fill in any continuity errors or grammar mistakes with your imagination)


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